Seattle’s skies just got a little greener! The Museum of Flight has begun installing a massive solar energy system on the roof of its nine-story Aviation Pavilion — 1,863 gleaming panels that will turn Pacific Northwest sunshine into clean power for one of America’s greatest aviation museums.
The project kicked off in spectacular fashion this week, with giant cranes lifting the panels onto the Pavilion’s 3-acre rooftop between October 5 and 7. Over the next two months, crews will finish wiring the arrays into the museum’s electrical system. When complete, the solar array is projected to supply 100 percent of the annual energy needs of the museum’s West Campus — with any extra electricity flowing back into the public power grid.
The $4.02 million project got a major boost from a $1,237,323 award from the Washington State Department of Commerce, funded through the state’s Climate Commitment Act. The Aviation Pavilion, one of the largest free-span aircraft display structures in the United States, is home to dozens of historic aircraft and spacecraft — soon to be powered by the sun itself.
It’s a sky-high win for sustainability in the Emerald City: a museum devoted to the wonder of flight showing the world how to fly a little lighter on the planet.
Photo: Chris Light, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
